John Adams

You may not know this, but I have turned into a pretty big history buff. It’s my best subject (at the moment) and I can’t wait to learn more.

Since eighth grade, I’ve had an odd fascination with the Adams family (no… not THAT family, I know what you are thinking.) It started with Abigail when we were learning about the revolutionary war, for the nth time. Not to say that it isn’t a perfectly spectacular period to learn about, it’s only that with each new time learning it, you also need to change the level of thinking. Just wasn’t happening for me. (Although this year I feel adequately challenged for a change). Abigail was the first interesting person to pop out at me. I learned about her, and found Abigail very interesting. If you want a great middle grade biography of her, check out the one by Natalie Bober.

It became a joke to the class because I knew so much about Abigail and John, but hardly participated other than that. In my yearbook, my teacher even teased that I would be a guest speaker on them.

That’s not too far from where I am now. I’m working on a paper on John Adams that I might show my Human History II teacher. I’m having so much fun.

David McCullough is a genius. His writing illuminates history, even parts that bored me to tears last year. I find myself slowly plogging (if I may borrow Enna Isilee’s phrase) through his biography. Listening to it on tape is even more invigorating. John Adams was very real; he pondered similar questions as a young adult as I do as a young adult. I feel very much akin to him.

I would like to change this blog’s purposes one teeny bit. I am going to review the history books that I read as well as YA/Children’s.